it was when he disappeared.
Oh, and this is for you.
A piano sketch of the theme song.
That's all there is to go on.
The only thing left behind.
Yeah, it helps.
With this, we can raise
the curtain for now.
The next day, I visited the screenwriter,
ltoh, at his office...
...with production supervisor
Handawara.
So?
I worked with Rei from the
initial planning phase...
...for about 3 months, I think.
But the script was never finished.
He killed it himself.
Elaborate, if you please.
I mean, looking back...
...I think Rei was after a sort of a
horror movie, but that was...
Oh, do you like SFX?
No, I don't.
Rei didn't either.
For instance...
Screenplay
Kazumaro Itoh
He hated it when I
did something like this.
A movie contains in itself a
rational space that is the drama.
In other words, a pseudo reality.
And because of that premise, an act
like this can be bizarre and peculiar.
In short, unless this scene that I'm
acting out has a sense of reality...
...that could be experienced
by the audience as well...
...I would look like nothing but an idiot
fiddling with my own intestines like this.
A talking head.
Very classic.
In the past, movies were a wonderment,
a horror, and so to speak, magic itself.
It is hard to believe now,
but people back then were amazed...
...by a baby on screen smiling at them.
And they panicked in front of a
steam engine plowing toward them.
The good old days.
Though that would cost
directors their living.
Same for screenwriters.
But such a naive era did not last long.
Brief glory and then downfall.
Just as a kid whose smile alone became
insufficient to win affection...
...and would start behaving amiably.
Or a woman on the verge of being dumped
would take to new sexual techniques...
...the movie industry started
exercising its utmost skills.
However, the audience,
having escalated their desire to watch...
...is now reaching the point of apathy.
No matter what or how you show it
to them, it won't amount to much.
And?
After much trial and error,
a secret weapon was obtained.
An ultimate knockdown blow.
Story.
Replacing illusions and tricks,
it became a standard rule...
...spreading reality in the movies.
To disassemble the story and
drive the reality away from the screen...
...instead of the other way around.
He was trying to play
a game without rules.
To be more precise, a game where you
make up the rules as you play it.
There are no pre-existing
rules in a movie.
Because the work that's created
becomes a rule. That's a movie.
And you say animation is the same.
Naturally.
Animation replicated existing
live-action films...
...and by following the same path,
evolved into movies.
A newly born monster,
by a new magic called "story"...
...went through a rebirth
and became a movie.
However, from then on, movies
turned toward the creation of...
...more natural, more realistic worlds,
in other words, a more naturalistic world.
And in the process, illogical, irrational,
fantastic, and improvisational worlds...
...were chased away, and movies as magic
itself were quickly forgotten.
And he couldn't stand it.
Instead of a movie existing only
to tell a story, he said...
...the challenge is how faithfully
you can tell a story called a movie.
I see.
You do?
That's incredible.
And, the script that was killed?
It's a clearly and logically structured,
first-class mystery...
...with a serial killer case as a motif.
Or, it was.
A few days before he disappeared,
the script disappeared...
...from the computer's memory.
It vanished, just like smoke.
It may have been his doing.
What do you want to do?
I'm still bound to this project.
Or, am I going to be fired?
Do you say a movie must
have a happy ending?
I think as long as it finishes,
anything is happy.
Besides...
Over time, films discolor, wear out,
burn or melt away and disappear.
That's what he-
Rei, always said.
I like that.
Continue working on